As of 00:00 UTC today – 4 days after the launch of the Fast Track Process we have new requests coming in.

The total number is 10 requests. They spread over 5 different languages.

Details about the process is at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Please keep asking questions. Is there is anything we can explain better? The FAQ will be updated shortly to include everything you ask here as well.

The launch went smoothly. We have since monitored the system and everything is working.

As of 10pm Pacific time (15 November 2009) we have received:

- 6 requests from countries/territories
- representing 3 different languages

Following the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Final Implementation Plan, no additional details will be reported by ICANN – that is, until requests has been successfully processed.

That said, we will be providing additional stats (as the above) updates in regular time intervals.

No countries or territories has reported problems using the system, at this time.

All details for participants and access to the system is available directly from http://www.icann.org or directly at: http://icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

Inquiries for the system are to be submitted to idncctldrequest@icann.org

A quick note to participants:

When uploading supporting material, please note that each file must be limited to 10MB. If you have larger files, please indicate that in the text box provided, and send the files to idncctldrequest@icann.org We will try to find a better solution to this soon.

We are very much looking forward to receiving additional requests and processing everything, to make IDN ccTLDs a reality for Internet users around the world!

Instead I have decided to post the letter below. Samira is a real person She is a little girl from a village in a developing country. She has one thing in common with many others – she has no access to the Internet (they do have radio). But while her Internet problems start at a different place than IDNs, I am confident that IDNs at some point soon will make it easier for her to learn about the Internet and also make it easier for her to use it. Samira will have to wait for the postal delivery of this letter – but then there is nothing like getting that kind of mail too

Other than that I just like to say that I hope the Fast Track launch goes smoothly, and that it will work favorable for all participants. But most of all I hope that we with this launch will treat IDNs carefully and with the respect it deserves, and that we will continue to work together across time-zones and cultures, because afterall, what is the Internet if it does not work well for many years and users to come.

————————————-
Dear Samira,
Tomorrow is BIG BIG day for many people around the world and I decided to share it with you.

I know you have not seen the Internet yet, but as you grow up and you do, maybe you will recall this letter and an exciting time. What is the Internet? Well, it’s like this big box of information, pictures, games – you can read and also write about anything you like. it could be about peasants, your favorite food, toy, and you know what? You can even listen to the radio on the Internet. Only your imagination sets a limit for the Internet. Have you ever looked under water? It’s like an entire new world down there, so different than on land. The Internet is kind of like that – a different world – only bigger and it has information about under-water and land in it….anything you can imagine

And every page on this Internet has an address. You know, just like you know how to explain where you live. It is made that way so that I can tell you an address and you can then go to that address and read my letter to you, or look at a picture I placed there for you to see. All these addresses have only been able to be written in the Roman alphabet….yes sounds a little weird, but that is just all those letters you see me write here.

Guess what happens tomorrow? Countries around the world – your country too – will be able to get a new address on the Internet. The most exciting thing is that this new address can be in almost any letters you like. So you can use your own language for an address for you. Then your friends and family can use that address and see what you are putting on the Internet. So it will be easier for you and everyone you know to remember that address. I think you will be excited when you see how it works.

I know that even though you already know more than one language, you are soon going to begin learning English. English is the language I used to write this letter to you. Languages are so exciting and they change all the time. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with, but I will tell you more about it in my next letter. Learning another language is amazing and it will help you communicate with people around the world. I have made so many friends around the world who all have helped make the Internet change the way I tried to describe to you. They have all taught me something important about life that I will never forget. But it would not have worked if we did not speak a little bit of the same language. So I really hope that you will be enjoying learning a new language.

You know how you can write your language both by using the Roman alphabet, and also the Arabic one? Well, this Internet change is almost the same thing – now these addresses can be in either alphabet too! And the coolest thing about it is that there is only one to decide which alphabet to use, and that it YOU! It is your choice for you and you alone!

But please keep that in mind when you start using the Internet. Let me know when that is and I will help you get your own address to a place on the Internet, in your language. But remember that I am not able to read or write your language (although I wish) so it may be a little bit difficult for me in the beginning and I will need your help.

With the very best wishes to you and many many others in the next generation of Internet users. I know I am together with many people around the world when I say that I can’t wait to see what you will use it for and how you will change it over time too….

Here is a quick rundown of ICANN-related events and information for participating both in person and remotely.

Open Forum

There are two main sessions from the ICANN perspective. On Sunday 15 November, at 9.30 to 11.00am local time in Room 1 (Sinai), ICANN will be running an open forum that will cover the organization’s latest developments, including the new Affirmation of Commitments, the recently approved “fast track” for IDN Internet extensions, the new generic top-level domain process, and other topics.

If you not attending the conference in person, the session will be audiocast and you will be able to send in interventions via email and through a chat function on the IGF site.

Critical Internet Resources

Then, on Monday 16 November, there will be a main session on Managing Critical Internet Resources in the main room from 9.30am to 12.30pm.

This event will be webcast and, again, you will be able to send in questions via email and through chatrooms.

Participating Remotely

Links to the webcasts, audiocasts and chatrooms will be posted on the IGF’s webpage at http://www.intgovforum.org.

There are also a number of “remote hubs” around the world that comprise local meetings where participants are able not only to watch the webcast of the IGF but also to interact with the meeting.

Those participating will also be able to discuss the themes covered by the IGF from a local perspective with others from their own region. The Forum serves as a stimulus or a starting point for the debate of local issues and implications and for the development of a network of interested people in every region.

For more information go to: http://www.igfremote.com/

Other sessions

Apart from those two main sessions, there are a range of other sessions that may be of interest to ICANN community members. These include:

Monday 14.00-15.30 (Room 2, Red Sea): Best practices in ccTLD Policy and Operations management Resources

Monday 14.30-16.00 (Room 3, Suez Canal): Managing Internet Addresses: Global and regional viewpoint

Tuesday 11.00-12.30 (Room 2, Red Sea): Domain Name Use: Theft, Threats & Solutions

Tuesday 14.30-17.30 (Room 4, Nile Valley): Securing Cyberspace: Strategy for the Future

Tuesday 15.00-18.00 (Main room): Internet Governance in the light of WSIS Principles

Wednesday 9.00-12.30 (Room 3, Suez Canal):Code of good practice on participation, access to information and transparency in Internet governance

Wednesday 14.00-15.30 (Room 4, Nile Valley): Arabic Script IDNs: Challenges and Solution

Full schedule

You can view the full IGF meeting schedule online at: http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/2009/sharm_el_Sheikh/WorkshopSchedule.html

What was it?

ICANN’s 36th international public meeting was the last of three held annually to conduct policy development and outreach. It was hosted by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and KISA(Korea Internet & Security Agency), a public agency that plays a major role in developing and researching the Internet in Korea.

The meeting was opened by three local dignatories: Mr. See Joong Choi, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission; Mr. Heung Kil Ko, Senator and Chairman of the Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Broadcasting and Communications Committee of the National Assembly; and Ms. Hee Jung Kim, president of KISA. 

Mr. See Joong Choi spoke about how the Internet was 40 years old, and the impact it has had in that time. He talked about how important IP addresses were as assets for the future and that they become a common resource for all. And he welcomed the introduction of IDNs as paving a “new way toward the future”.

Mr. Heung Kil Ko spoke about how Korea was a leader in the knowledge and information society, with 77.6 percent of its citizens online. He spoke of the importance of an efficiently and stably managed IP address system, as well as dealing with security threats such as hacking and phishing. The conference would hopefully lead to close ties between ICANN and Korea, he added.

Ms. Hee Jung Kim also heralded the introduction of IDNs, and welcomed a recent change in the agreement that ICANN has with the United States government as strengthening the autonomy of the IP addressing system.

There were 1,207 attendees to the conference from 111 different countries. The participants engaged in a wide range of discussions about the Internet’s domain name system and related issues.

Further information about the meeting, including presentations and transcripts, is available at http://sel.icann.org.

ICANN’s next international public meeting will take place in Nairobi, Kenya beginning on 7 March 2010.

What happened and what are the next steps?

Many meetings, workshops, public forums and informal discussions were held over seven days by the different stakeholders of the ICANN model:

• Business interests
• Civil society – – including the At-Large Summit of individual Internet user representatives
• Governments and government agencies
• Internet service providers
• Registrants
• Registrars
• Registries
• The technical community

Several key issues and themes evolved over the course of the meeting. They are summarized below.

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)

WHAT HAPPENED:  The most significant progress at the Seoul meeting was the approval of the “fast track”, which will see a limited number of internationalized domain names introduced to the Internet’s root possibly before the end of the year. To celebrate the occasion, a special evening reception was held on the Monday.

The fast track was formally approved by the Board on Friday, and although there remain concerns about their introduction, the Chairman noted it as an historic achievement and the vote was met with a standing ovation by the audience. Dozens of press articles from across the world also recognized the event.

For the first time, Internet users that speak something other than Western languages will be able to represent an entire Internet address in their own language.

NEXT STEPS: Applications to the fast track will open on 16 November.

MORE INFORMATION:

Official announcement of the approval: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30oct09-en.htm

Fast track webpage:
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

New gTLDs

WHAT HAPPENED:  The third version of the Applicant Guidebook, as well as a range of other papers and explanatory memoranda, were produced for discussion at the meeting. A main session on the program was held on the Monday.

In particular, additional work was done on the “overarching issues” that need to be addressed before the introduction of new top-level domains (see below for more specific information).

ICANN staff revised the deadline to the opening application date for new gTLDs. Instead of giving a date, or quarter, the launch date will be dependent on community efforts to find solutions to the overarching issues. This approach prompted some in the community to argue that ICANN needed to demonstrate its determination to the process.

The result at the end of the week was a compromise solution, approved in a Board resolution, that asked staff to look into how to introduce a system for allowing “expressions of interest” to be shown in new gTLDs.  That process may allow for likely demand to be gauged and provide useful data to move some discussions from theoretical to pragmatic.

The Applicant Guidebook is out to public comment until 22 November.

Trademark Protection

The issue of how to protect trademarks in the event of a massive expansion in the domain name space continued to be an issue of much debate. A special session was held on the Wednesday to discuss the issue.

Following public comment on a report produced for the previous meeting in Sydney (the IRT report), possible solutions to the issue were reduced from four to two in a staff paper released prior to the meeting. Those solutions are: the creation of an IP Clearinghouse, or database of validated trademarks; and a Uniform Rapid Suspension process for use in clear-cut cases of trademark infringement.

That paper has been put to the GNSO for review.

Malicious Conduct

Two sessions on Monday afternoon addressed the concern that a large expansion of the domain name space will present new opportunities for abuse of the DNS, such as phishing, malware, the distribution of illegal content, and so on.

The broad concern is that with a large number of new companies entering the domain name market – both registries and registrars – that there will not be sufficient awareness of the problems of dealing with the criminal element online.

Summaries of the input received so far on this issue as well as a report by ICANN staff with proposed mitigation measures were posted for review prior to the meeting and a panel discussion dug further into both.

Security and Stability

A session on Wednesday focused on a report that review how the Internet’s current systems could scale to accommodate new Internet extensions, as well as other security related issues such as the introduction of a more secure form of the current system, called DNSSEC.

Broadly, there are some concerns that if a large number of extensions were introduced to the Internet at the same time, that the systems currently in place would not be able to cope.

There was some discussion about whether the report effectively recommended that new gTLDs would need to be delayed or spread out over time, although there was no agreement on that point and it remains for ICANN’s Advisory Committees in this area (RSSAC and SSAC) to review the report, public comments on the issue and report back to the community.

The root scaling report is out for public comment until 29 November.

Demand and Economic Analysis

Further economic analysis will be commissioned by ICANN in order to address outstanding concerns raised following review of the two previous economic studies.

NEXT STEPS: Feedback from the meeting, as well as comments sent to comment periods covering the third version of the Applicant Guidebook and papers related to the overarching issues, will be used to produce a fourth version of the guidebook for the Nairobi meeting in March.

Staff will review the possibility of introducing a system where potential gTLD applicants are able to provide “expressions of interest” in new Internet extensions in order to help the work move forward more effectively.

MORE INFORMATION:

The new gTLD program webpage contains the latest information as well as extensive background information on the whole process: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm

Root scaling study session:
http://sel.icann.org/node/7084

Trademark Protection session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7116

Malicious Conduct and new gTLDs session:
http://sel.icann.org/node/7117

Malicious Conduct and Consumer Protection:
http://sel.icann.org/node/7288

Registry/registrar separation session:
http://sel.icann.org/node/7083

New gTLD update session:
http://sel.icann.org/node/6739

Strategic Planning

WHAT HAPPENED: ICANN held its first strategic planning session for 2010 was held on Wednesday morning.

The strategic plan is the process by which the organization’s priorities are mapped out, feedback is received from the community, and all the input is pulled into an Operating Plan, from which the organization’s budget is decided and allocated.

The session was more interactive than previous years with an online survey asking people to rank the importance of various areas of work e.g. implement new gTLDs, strengthen accountability, etc.

The plan recognized four main areas of focus for ICANN: preserve DNS stability and security; promote competition, trust and consumer choice; excel in IANA and other core operations; maintain ICANN’s long term role in the Internet eco-system. Within these, no less than 18 projects were highlighted as being of strategic priorities over the next three years.

NEXT STEPS: A draft plan will be drawn up based on community feedback and provided to the Board for review. The plan will then be put out to public comment in early December, with the second set of feedback used to draw up a revised plan to be put before the Board for approval in February 2010.

MORE INFORMATION:

Strategic plan session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7103

Online survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Auve9xOKvl0YbWhg1NLKmA_3d_3d

Affirmation of Commitments

WHAT HAPPENED: The Joint Project Agreement (JPA) that ICANN had with the US government concluded in September and was replaced by an Affirmation of Commitments.

Under that Affirmation, ICANN becomes accountable to the global Internet community and a series of reviews are outlined that help ensure a high degree of public, global accountability.

A special session was held on the Wednesday afternoon where the Chairman and CEO took questions about the Affirmation and also outlined a path forward for carrying out the reviews.

The Affirmation was also given an hour-long slot at the public forum on Thursday.

NEXT STEPS: The Affirmation outlines a number of reviews. An initial draft of how these might work will be produced following community feedback and presented at the next ICANN meeting in Nairobi.

MORE INFORMATION:

The Affirmation of Commitments: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30sep09-en.htm#affirmation

Affirmation session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7481

GNSO Improvements

WHAT HAPPENED: After years of hard work, the new GNSO Council sat for the first time in Seoul. There are now two main stakeholder groups: Contracted (made up of registries and registrars), and Non-Contracted (made up of commercial and non-commercial interests).

A new chair was chosen by both houses – Chuck Gomes – and he will work alongside two new vice-chairs: Olga Cavalli (Non-Contracted) and Stephane van Gelder (Contracted).

MORE INFORMATION:

The GNSO Improvements webpage:
http://gnso.icann.org/en/improvements/

The GNSO Council session: http://sel.icann.org/node/6708

Independent Reviews

WHAT HAPPENED: A number of sessions that covered the review of specific parts of ICANN were held during the week.

Currently, two bodies are in the implementation phase: GNSO and ALAC. The GNSO process was largely finished with the sitting of the new Council; whereas the ALAC met the Board’s Structural Improvements Committee to discuss the implementation of its changes.

Meanwhile, going through the Working Group stage (i.e. just before implementation) there is: the Nominating Committee; Board; and SSAC.

Other reviews ongoing included: RSSAC (just at the start of the working group period); ccNSO (just about to head into the review process); and ASO (terms of reference for its review being drawn up).

NEXT STEPS: The reviews will progress through the clearly defined processes in each case. More sessions will be held in Nairobi to discuss and review that progress.

MORE INFORMATION:

ALAC and Board SIC session:
http://sel.icann.org/node/7183

Nominating Committee review session
http://sel.icann.org/node/7094

Board review session: http://sel.icann.org/node/7252

SSAC review session:
http://sel.icann.org/node/7098

Board members and Councillors

Since this was ICANN’s annual general meeting, there was turnaround in Board and Council members.

In particular, Roberto Gaetano, Steve Goldstein, Wendy Seltzer and Thomas Roessler left the Board. From ALAC: Jose Ovidio Salgueiro, Fatimata Seye Sylla, Vanda Scartezini, Nguyen Thu Hue, and Sivasubramanian Muthusamy all ended their terms. And from the GNSO: Tony Harris, Philip Sheppard, Greg Ruth, Tony Holmes, Ute Decker, Cyril Chua, Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza, Maggie Mansourkia, Jon Nevett, and Steve Metalitz all left the Council.

Special mention was given to leaving GNSO chair Avri Doria and leaving NomCom chair Tricia Drakes.

Peter Dengate Thrush was re-elected as chair of the Board, and Dennis Jennings as vice-chair.

Board Resolutions

The full set of Board Resolutions at the public meeting on Friday can be found online at http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-30oct09-en.htm.

A transcript of the meeting can be found at: http://sel.icann.org/meetings/seoul2009/transcript-board-meeting-30oct09-en.txt

And video recordings of proceedings can be found in two parts at:
http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/p77419459/ and
http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/p19863704/

Other Matters

Pictures of the conference can be found at: http://www.icann.org/photos/

A mock-up of what the new front page may look like

Since June, ICANN staff has been working hard with external consultants Revere Group to redesign the website to fit with the community’s needs. Revere first carried out a site audit [pdf], pointing out all the areas where the website didn’t fit in with best practices and guidelines.

Then it carried out the online survey as well as around 15 in-depth interviews with community members and staff to find out what it was that people felt the website needed to do. And it also went through the full logs of website visitors to find out who was coming to the site and from where. And from that created a research document [pdf] summarizing the findings.

Based on these two documents, a new taxonomy [pdf] of the site was developed in iterations. New categories and menus cover all the different aspects of ICANN as an organization and structure them more simply and logically. And from that, wireframes [pdf] – blueprint designs – for new webpages were drawn up and new functions and approaches were discussed in an effort to make the site as easy to use as possible.

Design

Once the wireframes were in place, the study then moved into a design phase where a wide range of different approaches to the actual site look were drawn up and run through a group of around 10 staff over the course of a month, and the designs were gradually honed down to the point where the blueprints for the different pages were created as images.

And that’s where we currently are, as of 21 October. The remaining steps are the important ones – figuring out how to implement the new approach, ensuring that we keep as much of the design and new functions sketched out earlier in the process.

We will be working on a timetable for that in the next few weeks and will try to be conservative in our estimates so we don’t end up over-promising. But it is probably safe to say that before the next meeting in Nairobi in March 2010, there will be an updated and fit-for-purpose website that should finally put an end to most, if not all, of the usability issues that the community has had to deal with on ICANN.org for the past few years.

We are publishing summaries of the different aspects of this whole process so you as the community can see the work that has been put into this effort. Hopefully you will like what you see.

Usability study work summaries [pdfs]

• Site audit
• Research
• Taxonomy
• Wireframes

Session goals and outcomes:

The public forum is the community’s opportunity to make comments on the main topics in front of ICANN at each meeting directly to the Board and in front of the rest of the community.

The goal is to give a public and open forum for issues to be raised toward the end of the meeting and draw the community and Board’s attention to anything important.

The public forum is split up into the main topics of the Seoul meeting with a time alotted for each subject (see below). Attendees are encouraged to be brief and concise to enable as many people to speak as possible. A microphone is placed near the front of the room and commenters line up behind it to take their turn in asking a question.

Answerable questions are much preferred to comments, and both are preferred to statements – which can be incorporated into the official record without the need to read them out. If there are a large number of commenters, a two-minute clock may be introduced.

The ideal outcome of the public forum is that everyone who has an important issue to raise is able to relate it to the Board while also making the community aware of the issue.

The issues for discussion and their time slots are provided below.

The question box will take questions until Wednesday 14 October in preparation for the public forum at ICANN’s international public meeting in Sydney on Thursday 29 October.

Questions are limited to two per individual and 50 words in length each. They can cover any topic related to ICANN and its work. Answers will be provided either during the public forum or emailed and published in the weeks following the meeting.

You can find the form below, as well as on the Seoul meeting website and on the participation pages on ICANN’s main website.

If you can’t see the form below, you can go to it directly at:
http://icann.wufoo.com/forms/seoul-question-box/

Sections are:

• JPA/Affirmation
• Applicant Guidebook/new gTLDs
• Fast Track/IDNs
• Public comment periods
• Seoul meeting
• And the remainder

JPA/Affirmation
Last Wednesday, 30 September 2009, the Joint Project Agreement with the US government ended and in its place a new Affirmation of Commitments was signed.

This is obviously of enormous significance to ICANN, so it currently sits front and center on the ICANN front page. We have an announcement, the Affirmation itself, a video of CEO Rod Beckstrom explaining its significance, and reaction from the community. The Affirmation has been signed but obviously there is much that the community now needs to discuss, and that conversation will start in Seoul.

Applicant Guidebook / new gTLDs
The third version of the Applicant Guidebook was released today. It’s all out for public comment, as we have done twice before. We are gradually moving forward with the overarching issues and, again, Seoul will be place to have more discussions.

It is worth pointing out that today, Monday 5 October, is the document deadline for Seoul (15 working days before the start of the meeting), which is why so much stuff has appeared in the past few days. The idea is that everyone will now have plenty of time to read the documents and so be in a position to talk about their contents at Seoul.

The full rundown of documents can be found at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-3-en.htm, including red-lined versions so you can see what has changed.

Fast Track
This is the process for introducing internationalized domain names (IDNs) into the root – but only those that related to territories i.e. ccTLDs. The Fast Track final implementation plan was published last week for public comment, and the plan is to have the Board authorize it at the Seoul meeting (end of this month).

So, this is the last chance to have a look and have your say before it actually happens. You can find all the information you should need for that process at http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-30sep09-en.htm.

Public comment periods
As usual in the build-up to a meeting, we have a raft of public comment periods. Ignoring the ones for the Applicant Guidebook and Fast Track, both of which are mentioned above, we have also opened comment periods on:

• A root-scaling study by TNO
• The use of proxy services for domain registration i.e. people paying to ensure their personal details do not appear publicly as the owner of a particular domain name
• Board review final report i.e. the changes to be made to the Board itself as part of the ongoing independent review process
• SSAC review report – same as Board report above but not as far along in the process
• NomCom review report – same as SSAC above

Seoul meeting
Why we have this glut of material is, of course, the upcoming Seoul meeting at the end of October.

With respect to the meeting itself, there are several other pieces of information:

• The agenda is live - check it out to see what is going on, when and who will be speaking
• If you can’t attend, you can ask questions in the public forum online
• If you haven’t see it yet, the meeting has its own website at http://sel.icann.org

And the remainder
And there’s still more:

• Nairobi fellowship applications
• A new process for registry security requests
• A bulk transfer advisory

Hopefully that helps breaks down the work into manageable chunks. If you still have queries, please add them as a comment below.